Isle of Man County Crown Green Bowling Association

South Ramsey hosted the Jim Kernan on Saturday, the first of the pre-festival opens with a good entry of 50, which included nine visiting bowlers.

Losing out at the quarter final stage were Steve Parker (Onchan), who lost out 14-21 to regular Island visitor Andy Mailer. Marown man Neil Withers just lost out 20-21 to home greener Stefan Kelly with Withers letting slip a 10-3 lead on Kelly, whilst Dave ‘Barney’ Kelly (Peel) lost out 18-21 to home greener David Bradford in another close game. Marown captain Paul Dunn having earlier defeated Manx Champion Colin Kelly, then disposed of South Ramsey captain Glynn Hargraves 21-8 with relative ease to book his place in the semi-finals.

In the semi-finals Bradford then returned the favour to see off Dunn with a 21-9 win, with Bradford scoring 11 consecutive points to build a big lead which Dunn could not recover from. In the other semi-final Andy Mailer’s hopes were ended by Stefan Kelly with Mailer losing out 18-21.

The final started with Bradford favourite to win, however Kelly had other ideas performing well to take a 8-4 lead, then keeping Bradford at arms length to retain a four point lead at 13-9. Bradford hit back to level the game at 14-14 and his greater experience helped him get over the line to claim a 21-17 win to retain the title and take home £150 prize money.

The presentation was made by South Ramsey chairman Steve Moore, who thanked those who had stayed to support, everyone who had helped with the running of the competition throughout the day. During his speech Bradford thanked the ladies for the brilliant refreshments provided, also commented on the improvement in the green since the start of the season, with credit being given to the team who have helped get the green into the condition it is now in.